Song Sharing by iTunes Users Stirs Piracy Concerns

The software from Apple Computer Inc. that lets Macintosh users buy songs from an online music store also lets them tap the Internet to listen to songs they haven’t paid for, giving record labels and music publishers a new worry about piracy.

Apple’s iTunes software was designed to allow people to store songs on one Mac and play them on others on their home networks. But users quickly found a way to tweak the system to share their music collections with a wider group of people.

In the two weeks that iTunes has been on the market, several Web sites have sprung up to help users find others who are sharing songs online. And some adept programmers have developed a way to let people copy those songs.

“It sounds as if it is a hole in the security that needs to be closed,” Cary Ramos, an attorney for the National Music Publishers Assn., said Tuesday. “I don’t know what Apple can do to achieve that, but I would certainly hope that they would take steps immediately to address this issue.”

Apple noted that the songs it sells for 99 cents each at its iTunes Music Store are designed so they can’t be copied onto more than two additional Macs or otherwise shared through any computer network. The only song files that can be shared with the iTunes software are ones copied from a CD or downloaded from an unauthorized online source.

The music industry’s response to the song-sharing function, first reported by the online publication CNet, has been tempered. Several record company executives said Apple briefed them in advance about the sharing feature, though they thought it would be confined to use on home networks.

Other executives emphasized that the success of Apple’s Music Store, which sold more than 1 million downloadable songs in its first week, was more significant than the unexpected expansion of the sharing function to the Internet. These executives, who asked not to be named, are waiting to hear more from Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple about the issue.

Apple executives wouldn’t comment Tuesday on whether they were surprised by the way iTunes is being used. A spokeswoman noted that the company has stressed that the software “is intended solely for personal use.”

Until the Music Store was launched with the support of all five major record companies, Mac users faced more hurdles gaining access to online music services than people using PCs with Microsoft Corp.’s Windows software. None of the services sanctioned by all of the major labels offered Mac versions of their software; nor did many of the file-sharing systems for making unauthorized copies of songs.

With iTunes 4, Mac users have exclusive access to more than 200,000 songs. They have some anti-piracy features but fewer restrictions than tracks sold by Windows-oriented services from the likes of Pressplay and Listen.com Inc.

It took only a few days for users to configure iTunes so that it could play songs stored on computers anywhere on the Internet. That turned Macs into jukeboxes for others to play.

Apple didn’t equip iTunes with a way for people to find computers that were sharing music, but several Web sites now fill that gap -- with some even offering ways to search for specific songs.

Rob Lockstone, a software engineer in Los Gatos, Calif., operated one site, dubbed the iTunes Database. In an interview, he said his goal was to expose people to music they hadn’t heard before so “they would end up buying different and more music.” But he said he pulled the plug after discovering that there is software people can use not only to listen to songs stored on others’ computers but also to copy them.

“I cannot, in good conscience, continue to provide a service which will facilitate the theft of copyrighted material,” Lockstone said in a note posted on the site. “Sadly, as I write this, people are trying to hack my site” to get access to the links they need for downloading.

Some music industry executives said they still were trying to understand the implications of the feature and how it was being adapted. The potential for online song sharing is evolving as users write their own programs to build on its capabilities.

Apple shares rose 11 cents to $18.67 on Nasdaq on Tuesday.